North Adams baseball finishes 7-15

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

An up and down season for first-year head coach Brady Johnson and his North Adams Green Devils baseball squad came to a close on March 16 when the green and gold dropped an 8-4 decision at Minford in a Division III district final contest. With the loss, the Devils ended their spring with an overall record of 7-15, after starting 1-8.

At Minford, the Devils got off to a great start, striking for three runs int he top of the first inning. A bases loaded single by starting pitcher Cooper Roush brought home a pair and a base hit by Kaleb Eldridge drove home Ethan Taylor with the third run of the at-bat.

Unfortunately for the visitors, the host Falcons touched up Roush for three of their own and the game was deadlocked after one full inning of play. Minford took the lead with a single run in the bottom of the third only to see the Devils even things up again in the top of the fourth when Asher Young come home on a Taylor base hit.

That was it, howver, for the visitors, as they were blanked over their final three at-bats. In the meantime, the Falcons scored in all three of their final trips to the plate, getting two in the fourht, one in the fifth and then one more in the bottom of the sixth.In their final half-inning of the season, the Devils went down in order, Taylor flying out to center, Roush and Eldridge grounding out to short to end the game.

Even in the loss, the Devils banged out 10 hits, led by two each from Colin Tolle and Ethan Taylor in his final game with North Adams. Roush took the loss on the mound, allowing six earned runs in four innings of work.

The Devils will have some holes to fill when the 2025 season rolls around as last week’s district defeat was the farewell for seven seniors- Gage White, Asher Young, Hunter Brown, Logan Shupert, Ethan Taylor, Easton Daulton and Caleb Rothwell.

“The season as a whole was a very eye opening experience and a very good one at that,” said CoachJohnson. “It was amazing being able to step into such a well-run program, I would like to thank Coach Meade for that. In the beginning of the year, we struggled very heavily with our hitting and that caused us to lose a lot of close games. The schedule was also brutal in the beginning for the SHAC. Having to face three of the top four teams in the first couple of weeks really took a toll on us. As the year went on we started to hit our stride. We rattled off four or five straight and that was a big confidence boost for the kids. We did a lot of things right this year as a team.”

“Having such a large group of seniors who have played all four years made my job coming in a lot easier. They will be missed for all that they have accomplished on the diamond throughout their four years. Looking forward, we will be very young for the next couple of years. But we have two of our top five hitters back along with two of our top five pitchers.”

North Adams

300 100 0 —4

Minford

301 211 x —8

N. Adams Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Tolle 4-0-2-0, Daulton 3-1-1-0, Rothwell 2-1-1-0, Taylor 4-1-2-1, Roush 4-0-1-2. Eldridge 4-0-1-1, Hupp 3-0-1-0, Young 3-1-1-0, Raines 3-0-0-0, Team 30-4-10-4.

Minford Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Cronin 4-2-2-0, Book 1-2-0-0, Wheeler 4-0-2-1, Queen 3-2-3-3, Thacker 4-0-0-0, Matiz 2-1-1-1, Borland 3-0-3-2, Laxton 3-0-0-0, lauder 1-1-1-0, Team 25-8-12-7.

Extra-Base Hits: Cronin 2B, Wheeler 2B, Queen 2B, Borland 3B (2)

N. Adams Pitching:

Roush (L) 4 IP, 9 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 62 pitches

Taylor 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 18 pitches

Daulton 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 pitches

Minford Pitching:

Thacker (W) 7 IP, 10 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 6 K. 105 pitches